His Majesty had the solution for rice farmers

Discussions have resurfaced about reforming how the biggest and poorest sector of the Thai population earns a living, but not surprisingly so. Our farmers have always been the targets of good and bad intentions, yet, despite all the rhetoric, their plight is often politicised rather than examined in meaningful ways. We can only hope the outcome will be different this time.
The farmers are in the news again, and, as always, their actual presence in the media coverage is secondary, with the limelight this time going to politicians competing to sell rice and accusing one another of taking advantage of poor people just to gain publicity. It doesn’t help matters that a major political case is proceeding in court concerning former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her government’s controversial rice price-pledging policy. In addition to purported attempts by Yingluck and her political rivals to help farmers sell their rice, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and the National Farmers Council have come out to highlight the chronic ordeals of the poor population. As a result, farmers are in the news on a daily basis. And, as usual, some ideas that make sense are in danger of being brushed aside by politics.
Maybe what’s transpiring in the news offers a clue as to why chronic problems facing the farmers have never been resolved, nor even properly tackled. There has been too much politicking and too little genuine determination to help these people. Efforts to do so have never been unified and proposals have always turned on the question of who gets the credit and whose involvement is ignored. To make matters worse, those typically taking advantage of farmers usually have strong political connections, meaning that sensible, promising proposals often get bogged down amid the contrivance of backroom deals.
So what might constitute genuine reform in the rice-growing sector? One answer is quite simple, but it would require best intentions among everyone concerned, and completely shorn of politics. In fact it is essential that politics not be allowed to get in the way. The steps taken must focus on what’s most important – namely crop fertilisation, soil irrigation, land allocation and a vastly reduced role for the middlemen, while maintaining a market mechanism that links demand and supply more directly.
His Majesty the late King often spoke wishfully of a market in which the consumers are much closer to growers than has traditionally been the case. It was an arrangement he espoused long before technology allowed farmers to advertise their own produce and products and consumers to connect with the sources directly, effectively and en masse. What His Majesty envisaged has now become possible, and it’s an idea that would truly help this significant segment of the population. Ultimately it will come down to establishing an efficient infrastructure for farmers – and not caring about who gets the praise. 
Of course, just as with reforms needed in the education system, this will take time. But a solid initiative implemented soon will be bearing fruit 10 years from now – as long as that initiate can withstand whatever political nonsense occurs in that time.
Farmers have heard far too much rhetoric and seen too little genuine dedication to resolving their difficulties. Lending them long-term and sustainable support might not win anyone an election, but it’s the right thing to do. With the talk about helping farmers now back on the front pages again, the time has come to make sure that talk counts for something. What the farmers produce is real and substantial. Insincere pledges and self-serving lip service are not.